Two Soldiers Wounded in Clash Near Border in Southern Lebanon

Two Israel Defense Force soldiers were wounded Sunday when their patrol clashed with terrorists in the security zone Israel patrols in southern Lebanon.

The Israelis killed one terrorist. Two who escaped are believed to be the intruders killed in the vicinity a short time later by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army.

The encounter occurred near the border, north of Moshav Zar’it. The terrorists, heading for the border, were intercepted by soldiers from the Golani Brigade on a routine patrol in the western sector of the security zone.

They fired a hand-held LAW anti-tank missile at the IDF unit, wounding one soldier badly. The other was only slightly hurt.

Other soldiers opened fire, killing one terrorist. Two other terrorists fled northward, one of them trailing blood. A search near the scene yielded two Kalachnikov assault rifles, grenades and a quantity of ammunition.

In Lebanon, Nayef Hawatmeh’s Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed that its members took part in a battle with the Israelis to mark the third anniversary of the intifada.

Meanwhile, IDF units destroyed a terrorist base in the eastern sector of the security zone without sustaining casualties, according to local sources.

So far this year, seven IDF soldiers and one SLA soldier have been killed in 20 clashed with terrorists in the security zone. In the same period, 44 terrorists were killed.